Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Leopardspaw	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 21311 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this fanfic.

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Chapter Six—The Fumbling Hand

            Studying Corinna, and the way Malfoy stood and shivered in front of her, Harry understood a few things. They weren’t things that he’d necessarily wanted to understand, but they were there, and he comprehended them.

            Malfoy had used Corinna’s name as a club to frighten Flint and the others with. Hearing that, Harry had thought they were friends or a sort, or, more likely, allies. But she was in charge of something important, or in possession of some deadly secrets, and her hand rested too casually on her book now, and she smiled at Malfoy in a way that was miles from how someone might greet an ally.

            He does have a club, though. One he’s forgotten.

            “What price?” Harry said, in a loud voice that he deepened and sharpened to turn into a bray, the sort of voice Umbridge used when she was trying to control her classroom. “Malfoy? You never said anything about hiring anything else. Better not cut into my profit, that’s all I’m saying.”

            Malfoy turned to him looking as if he wished he had the club Harry was thinking of so he could beat Harry over the head with it, but Corinna looked at him with an expression of quick interest instead. “Your new bodyguard,” she murmured. No red glow, so she at least believed it. “I don’t believe you’ve introduced us.”

            Malfoy ducked his head and shivered a little in what looked like distaste. “Lady Corinna,” he murmured. “My bodyguard, Edward Howard.”

            A glow was there for Malfoy’s lie, of course, but Harry was more intrigued by the way Corinna cocked her head, listening for echoes in the fake name.

            She didn’t find them, it seemed, or not enough to satisfy her, because she folded her hands in front of her again and sighed. “Draco, you should know better than to bring someone along with you who’s not approved by the Dean.”

            Dean? For a moment, Harry almost lifted his head in shock, convinced that he’d heard his old friend’s name, but then he remembered the “The.” As though this was a school, or something. He kept his eyes fixed on Corinna’s face and rapped his wand against his hand to maintain the disguise he’d adopted of a loud, crude mercenary, but he decided that he’d listen more carefully than ever to what came out of her mouth.

            “How convenient for me that that’s you,” Malfoy said, his eyes narrowed and his hands tight little balls of stubbornness, curled in front of him.

            “How convenient,” Corinna agreed, without agreeing. Harry saw a faint red star around her hair that winked out a moment later, as though his gift couldn’t decide whether she was lying or not. Perhaps Corinna herself found Draco irritating and couldn’t say. “Let’s take a look at you, Edward Howard.”

            She stood up and walked towards Harry. Harry stared at her, his gorge rising. He no longer thought she was Snape in disguise, or even necessarily on Flint’s side, as he’d thought at first when Malfoy had started speaking. What she was, was…

            Dangerous.

            The force of the Dark magic around her body struck him like a blow to the head, and he was reeling with it, moving backwards to get away from her before he thought about it. Corinna paused, and her eyes widened slightly. Then she smiled and tapped her sapphire ring.

            The gut-wrenching magic calmed down a little, sliding back into her ring and hand and letting Harry see and breathe again. But he had already decided that he needed to catch his breath and launch back into his role again. “You trying to kill me, bitch?” he demanded, aiming his wand at Corinna’s ring.

            He heard Malfoy catch his own breath with what sounded like a painful effort, and then Malfoy’s hand was on the back of his neck, forcing him into an ungainly bow. Harry struggled against it and muttered threats and curses as Malfoy said, sounding like he was pleading, “Forgive him, Lady Corinna. He’s new here. He doesn’t know the rules.”

            “Another reason for you to let me choose my guests,” Corinna said, circling around to the side and looking at Harry from that direction. She tapped a finger on her lips, then nodded. “You can feel how strong I am. That’s a mark of someone I might let in the door after all. But your manners leave something to be desired. Stand up, Mr. Edward Howard.”

            Harry aimed his wand at her again, and only dropped his hand when she stared evenly at him. Yes, even someone as stupid as he was playing would probably get the urge to behave politely in the face of that stare.

            “Still not right, to have magic like that,” he muttered.

            “You consider yourself a Light wizard, Mr. Howard?” Corinna had paced behind him now. Harry stiffened, but continued to stand still, even as Corinna’s hand replaced Malfoy’s on the back of his neck, rubbing into the skin there, into the muscles, seeking something he didn’t know about. He saw the flare of blue light from over his shoulder as the sapphire in the ring did something, and then—

            Then he was floating. He felt the soothing voice of the Imperius Curse murmuring inside his head, telling him to speak the truth. He wouldn’t be hurt. He wanted to do nothing except obey. Do it, and there would be rewards beyond anything he had dreamed. He would have a vault of Galleons to spend as he liked, and the respect of Dark wizards. All he had to do was open his mouth and tell Lady Corinna who he was. As she walked around in front of him again, Harry stared at the dizzying sapphire, with an image of a star floating in the middle of its delicately carved facets, and had the urge to do just that.

            I can throw off the Imperius Curse, he thought a moment later, and pity filled him instead of the peace that Corinna had meant to cast him into. I’m Harry Bloody Potter, with a truth spell on me as well. She has no idea who she’s dealing with, and she hopefully wouldn’t try to mess with me if she knew.

            He lifted his head, looked into Corinna’s eyes, and tried to sound as though he was speaking through numbed lips when he said, “What do you want to know?”

            Malfoy started from the corner of his eye. Harry curled his fingers around his wand and turned it slowly back and forth. It was the only casual motion he could think to make, the only approximation of the signal he had used with Malfoy in front of Flint and the others to tell him when they were lying. He hoped that Malfoy would understand it instead of dashing forwards and ruining everything.

            He seemed to. He stood still, although a storm filled and darkened his eyes. Harry hid his beam behind his slow, stupid smile. He knew Malfoy was smart.

            A prize for any wizard smart and strong enough to hold him. I might not be the one, since he knows who I really am and thinks I’m stupid to boot, but someone else should. Why in the world isn’t he married yet? Or at least involved with someone who wants to pound him into the carpet every time he opens that clever mouth?

            “Your real name, please,” Corinna said, sounding apologetic. The star sapphire glimmered on her finger as she turned the ring around. “We’ve had several uninvited guests enter the College in the last year, and they simply have no notion of how to behave.” She smiled, while Harry controlled his snort that she believed that load of bollocks with an effort of heroic proportions. “I’m sure you’re not one of them, Mr. Howard, but I only wanted to make sure.”

            “My name,” Harry said, and clasped a hand to his heart, swaying forwards as if Corinna’s sapphire drew him so much he’d collapse, “is not Edward Howard.”

            Malfoy stiffened again. Harry let his hand writhe out and then curl in slowly back towards his side. Wait. I’m smarter than you think I am.

            Malfoy seemed to believe that, or perhaps he had to believe that if he wanted to stay sane. He bit his lip, but remained still. Corinna only nodded in response to Harry’s declaration and said, “What a surprise. I want to know what it is.”

            Harry kept a straight face with another heroic effort. “My name is Mr. Doom,” he said.

            Corinna’s eyes narrowed at once, and Harry caught a glimpse of the deep brown under the sapphire blue that might be her natural color. “What?”

            “Henry Doom,” Harry said, wondering if a red glow lit the air around his face now, or would if he looked into a mirror. So far, though, he hadn’t been able to see anything like that. Maybe he could in the facets of the sapphire if he got it away from Corinna. “Henry for a King of England, and Doom for what I’m going to be to you.” And he stepped gently forwards and used a precisely placed Blasting Curse to shatter the band of her ring.

            Corinna shrieked and instinctively shot her other hand out, fumbling for the ring as it fell. Harry had already enacted a Summoning Charm, though, and caught the ring before it could hit the ground. He scooped it up and slid it over his finger, mending the shattered halves with a Reparo and glancing at the sapphire in interest. No, so far it didn’t show him anything that hadn’t appeared before, but he would keep his eye on it and see what might show up.

            Malfoy stood there in what looked like shock so complete and absolute he couldn’t move. That wasn’t a good thing, because Corinna had her wand drawn and pointed at him. Harry raised a Shield Charm and shook his head at Corinna.

            “All ye had to do was tell us where ‘e is,” he said, striving for an accent that sounded like Hagrid’s. “And not man-andle me. And tell us the truth.”

            “My curses can go through Shield Charms,” Corinna said, very softly. She appeared unconscious of the way that blood dripped from her finger, which looked sprained and swollen. Her attention was for Harry’s wand, and for the sapphire ring on his hand. Her eyes had turned brown the moment the ring was taken from her, Harry noted. “You should be careful of arousing my wrath, but since you have done it, then I’m going to kill your friend.”

            “My hemployer!” Harry said, varying the accent a little. Corinna’s eyes narrowed further, he was glad to see. “My trust!”

            He cast as he was speaking, a spell that made iron chains rise from the floor and clamp her feet to the boards. Corinna shrieked and tried to move, but only succeeded in falling over. Harry smiled. That was the weakness of many places like this, that were so glamoured it was hard to tell what was really going on in them. The owners couldn’t add protective spells to them to prevent someone else from altering their physical features because that magic was in itself strong enough to interfere with the glamours.

            “Sorry, me darling,” Harry said, and floated Corinna’s wand from her possession to his while she was still engaged in trying to stand up. “Can’t ‘ave you being a nui-sance.” He pronounced the word with relish, and turned and nodded to Malfoy. “Ye said that she had information on your father?”

            “Yes,” Malfoy said, staring at Harry with his eyes so wide and face so still that Harry didn’t think he stood a chance of figuring out what he was feeling. Well, that would change in a minute, when Harry provoked another reaction out of him. “But she’ll never tell us now, when she feels herself ill-used.”

            “Oh, reckon she will,” Harry said happily. “After all, she don’t tell us and she don’t get the pretty ring back.” He dangled the ring over his wand and murmured half a spell that he thought would shatter the sapphire. Most people did put protective spells on jewelry, but not of the kind that would protect it against Dark curses.

            Sure enough, Corinna sat up with one hand raised. “You’re not a Light wizard,” she said, trying to sound calm. “And you have no idea what will happen if you destroy that sapphire.”

            “I’ll annoy you,” Harry said gently, dropping the accent again. “And that might be enough.”

            Corinna shook her head. “You have no idea what will happen,” she repeated. She glanced at Malfoy. “You would find all doors of your haunts shut against you. You would never be able to come back here again.”

            Harry turned to Malfoy, interested to see how he would respond to the threat. It was a serious one, especially after the way he had tried to behave around Flint, even when he knew the bastard intended to cheat him.

            Malfoy closed his eyes, then opened them again. “If I have to make a new life, that’s what I’ll do,” he said, and while Corinna stared at him and doubtless thought that he was only putting on a brave face, Harry was the one who could see the air around him shining clear, unstained by any trace of a lie hovering there. “I won’t like it, it’ll be hard, but I have skills that can be turned to legal ends as well.”

            “You would not do that for your father,” Corinna whispered. “I asked you once what you would do to help him, and you said that you would not.”

            “I would not serve you,” said Malfoy, with a gentle, brutal smile. “And this is hardly helping him, is it? I want to know where he is, Corinna, and then he’s going back to Azkaban. That’s a promise.” He was watching Corinna with a faint critical air now. Harry wondered why, but kept silent in the hopes that Malfoy would tell him when he was done talking to Corinna. “You look different without the sapphire,” he remarked at last.



Harry raised his eyebrows. He had seen Corinna’s eyes color when they walked into the room, of course, but was it possible that the sapphire did something else? Perhaps made her frightening to people who already knew her? Or to people who couldn’t resist the Imperius Curse and its variants the way he did? He had assumed Malfoy was treating Corinna with extreme caution because she had threatened him in the past, but…

He bounced the sapphire thoughtfully in his palm, and then flicked it at Malfoy. “Catch,” he said helpfully when Malfoy whipped towards him and held his wand up as though he assumed that Harry was attacking him.

Malfoy gave him a dirty look, even as he stooped and gracefully caught the sapphire in the palm of his hand. Seeker reflexes, Harry thought, and distracted himself by thinking about what some of those reflexes would be like in bed.

Malfoy straightened back up (and Harry tried to watch the way his muscles flexed and bent without being obvious about it). He stared at the sapphire and shook his head for a moment. He seemed to be thinking deeply, but just from the state of his face, Harry couldn’t figure out what about. He chose to wait.

Meanwhile, Corinna sat on the floor in silence, her hands closer to Malfoy than to Harry, or the chains around her feet. Her eyes hadn’t left the ring, except to dart bitter glances at Malfoy’s face now and then.

The sapphire is magical, I know that, Harry thought, watching her. But I wonder why she invested so much power in something that could be stolen from her?

            “I begin to see why you used enchantments on this ring, and the kind of thing that it was meant to protect you from,” Malfoy murmured. His voice was low and smooth and calm. “I would say that you were paranoid. However, given that I now have the ring and you don’t, your paranoia begins to seem slightly less than your stupidity.”

            “Malfoy,” Corinna said. “You know that I have the power to ban you completely from this house as well as the others I own.”

            Malfoy shut his eyes and seemed to sway on his feet. Corinna tensed, and so did Harry. He wanted to be right up against Malfoy’s side if Malfoy needed help standing. Right close, where he could feel all those muscles and the way his back bent when he was struggling to keep himself upright.

            “No, you don’t,” Malfoy said, and his voice soared and sharpened, then dropped down a little so that he sounded as if he was talking to himself. “You don’t. The only reason I ever believed you did was this little gem.” His fingers caressed the sapphire. Harry sighed in silent envy. “And without it, do you still have the power?” He smiled at her. “I think you know what I want, Corinna. The information you have on my father, and a guarantee of safe conduct and safe passage, now and in the future.”

            “The sapphire isn’t worth that,” Corinna said, shaking her head.

            “Give it here, then,” Harry said excitedly, holding out his hand. “I’ve always wanted to see what kind of spell it would take to shatter one of those things.”

            Malfoy raised his eyebrows, but held out the ring. Harry walked towards him, and only when his fingers brushed the band did Corinna finally snap, “No!”

            Malfoy didn’t repeat his price, which Harry thought wonderfully practical and breath-saving of him as well as wonderful in general. He only waited, and Corinna ducked her head and nodded as though agreeing to her own death sentence.

            “Your father,” she whispered, “is in the Ministry.”

            Shit, Harry thought.

            From the look on Malfoy’s face, Harry was fairly sure he agreed.

*

            SP777: Teasing, but he would turn serious if Draco wanted to sleep with him!

            unneeded: Corinna thought she was a power. Maybe not.

            polka dot: At least Corinna won’t get away with it now.

            Duomi: No, Draco would probably be even more afraid of his mother. I’m glad you’re enjoying the story, though!

            alexkdp: Thanks! At the moment, I can’t say how far away the smut is.
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